Rolling Under the Stars

The Ocean, let me repeat myself...the enormous, gigantic, 96.5% of the earth's water, the OCEAN!

Oh hello, gorgeous people that read this blog. I have pictures for you. I have adventures to tell of, stories both tall and short. My goal is to inspire and to tell you that dreams are something you can touch.  I have gone far, but still I have miles to go.

This post is going to be a picture post mostly, since my last post lacked any retina stimulation.

A couple Fridays ago I was walking down the driveway like I always do, after being dropped off from work for the day. I walked down the driveway, doing my absolute best to leave work at work and be Dan, the fun loving guy and not Dan, the tired guy from working hard all day. So as I am doing this I notice Hugh, the fun loving Australian surfer “cruzie” dude, our flatmate, packing his car up.

It's a blue little car, the size of maybe a Ford Escort. I asked if we could tag along and he said "Yeah, I’m leaving in an hour," so Teryn and I packed up as quickly as we could and stuffed ourselves in Hugh’s clown car and left!

Teamwork makes the dream work.

Crusing along, we made our way down south straight to the coast our sights set on Colac bay. The weather man says clouds and rain all weekend. This, of course, doesn’t stop us from continuing forward. Clouds and rain did roll through, but I still managed to capture some great shots. Once in Colac bay, we drove up and around the coast and found Te Wae Wae bay with one of a kind oceanic views. 

Te WaeWae bay  Can you imagine a beach that is a mile long? Now imagine that same beach and it has not a single human being on it! No one trying to catch a tan, no one yelling, no kids crying, no sounds that are hcean waves crashing on the shore, birds and the gust of wind. My own cluttered brain noise stops in its tracks upon the views that we encounter.

I don’t always express my emotion on my face, sometimes it’s just a constant “resting bitch face”, but rest assure my brain is going off its hinges! This trip or “mission” as the locals call it, was worth it. We got to hang with hugh and discover a New Zealand that we have been dying to see. Teryn collected rocks and shells, Hugh surfed some “swell” waves and I saw the ocean. At 30 years old and this was only the 3^rd time that I’ve seen or touched the ocean.

Meanwhile back in Wanaka. Mac “The Austin Powers of NZ” our most animated character, is making moonshine. As I walk into the house, I find a familiar smell. I think back to when I first experienced this smell. Kody K, my basic training bestie from Wisconsin. Moonshine. Moonshine such a distinct smell. Mac has such an amazing set up. His version of fireball is grade “A”.

Ataahua is 6 years old. Ataahua means beautiful in Maori ( Maori is the natives of New Zealand ) Ataahua is constantly surrounded by adults and different flatmates that come and go. She can be a pain, but for the most part she is just a very curious kid. I always have a hot and cold reaction to kids and I have realized that as I get older. I want kids, but I know that I am not ready for kids. I much rather entertain the thought of buying a jet ski and raising that to be a glorious yacht! Either way though she is a cute kid!

I call this one “Girl vs. Oven” Pizza oven, Check. Head lamp, Check. Trying to roast chicken, Fail. Overall though, Teryn is quite flawless when it comes to making a feast out of barely anything. I couldn't asked for a better person to travel around and experience this all with.

This last time I went to Queenstown, I purchased Dug, our sweet little campervan. After I picked up Dug, I was hanging around Queenstown for a bit, while waiting for Teryn to get off from working at the PGA tournament. During that time, I came across this gem of wall art and I found the Queenstown gardens. There were trees and plants brought in from all over the world. What immediately caught my attention was this massive tree. Upon walking up to this gigantic tree, I thought this might be what a Red Wood from California would look like. I have yet to go to the Red Woods, but I’ve seen them in movies and in pictures. As I walked up to the little plaque that was attached at the base it read. “Sequoiagigantean” Red Wood, California. This was in fact a Red Wood! Super cool! Many of the trees in the Gardens were imported there back in the late 1800’s. Just makes me want to go to see them in their natural habitat in California that much more now. They are quite a sight to see.

(Photo Cred: Teryn)

Finally we have a vehicle! I’m sure most of you seen the picture of Dug on facebook by now. We are finally able to take some trips away from Wanaka and more around the rest of the country. On this last trip we decided to go on over to Kaka Point and Nugget Point in the Catlins. It’s South of Queenstown and along the coast. Teryn had seen a picture of the lighthouse and we both really wanted to get some more ocean time in, so away we went!

Due to the massive boulders in the water this made the area very dangerous to boats that were trading along the coast. Thus propping a lighthouse to be built to warn of impeding dangers ahead. The lighthouse was built in 1869 and stands just 249 ft above the water.  

I couldn’t get a good picture, but down there in a little side pool of water there were several sea lions swimming around! This area is home to sea lions, fur seals and a bit further south there are penguins!

The Nuggets at Nugget Point. It looks like something straight out of a movie scene, it would be a great pirate movie location. This was probably in one of the Lord of the Rings during a part that I was asleep.

That is all for now guys, but Easter weekend is a 5 day weekend and we are stoked to get out and about again!

What is something you've always wanted to see? The redwoods, Grand Canyon, The biggest ball of yarn?

Let us know below in the comments.

Also we are trying to brainstorm a new name to our blog, that will be used for not only this blog, but all of joint travel social Medias. Let’s hear your ideas. 

     Oh hey there! Sorry I’ve been gone for a hot minute. Just been doing the grind of trying to get some cash back into my bank account. Ok, let’s go back into my notes and see what I have to tell you guys about.

     I have come to conclusion that there are 10 blondes to 1 brunette here. I’m at a coffee shop, naturally, and there appears to be 5 blondes, 1 brunette and 1 woman with red hair. I think she might be the owner and the blondes are her little minions. So if you like blondes, man or woman, then New Zealand is the place for you.

When you ask for a Lemonade here, you get a Sprite. *Scratches head* Huh? I’m not sure if they know what lemonade is, but that is probably because lemons here are very scarce and thus, are very expensive.

     Half the town closes at 5pm, and the other half opens at 5pm. Much like all small towns, the trick is figuring out what is open at which 5. Speaking of Wich Wich, they don’t have those here. Sad face, but they do have a Subway. Which does, in fact, still smell the same. Still shitty sCrubway food. Sad face. I did go in there for some cookies though. (Yep, they taste the same as back in the states.)

    Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” is blaring at the climbing gym. Oh, the 80’s and 90’s are still alive here. Pearl Jam follows me everywhere. Oh, and did I mention “ Welcome to New Zealand, the only place in the world that will play Creed and Nickleback songs back to back on the radio.” Oh gawddd my ears can’t take it!

    I did, however, successfully introduce my co-workers to gangster Fridays! Bumping some Biggie and Pac with some old school Dre.

    I met the neighbors Goldie, Alex and their little boy Caleb. Super cute kid. Long blonde hair, looking like he is already surfing bigger waves than I ever could. Goldie is tattooed from head to toe, a rare sight here. Doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of inked up people here. Goldie automatically gives me a huge hug and warm welcome. I later find out that she does the traditional “poke” tattoos! So needless to say I’ll be getting one before I leave Wanaka. (Sorry mom, yes another tattoo.) I also learn that Goldie and her husband are the owners of the one tattoo shop that is here in Wanaka! Yay!

     Netflix is not allowed in New Zealand and actually it’s not allowed in many countries. So that was a big blow to us, at first. But luckily there is ways around it, and for $4 a month, we can bypass it and configure our computers to be able to watch it again. New Zealand is epic and there is a ton of things to do, but until we get money and a car, our options to do epic things are a bit limited, for now. I guess I’ll watch some docs and mindless shows on the laptop.

     Ghost!! So Lonestar ,the bar and grill I briefly worked at, has a Ghost! Every couple of days when they first turn everything on and open up, the POS system has a glass of brandy ordered on the screen! It’s very rare that anyone drinks brandy here. I thought “well maybe it’s just the one register fucking up,” but no, one day it’ll be ordered at the bar register and the other day it’ll be ordered on the waitress staff register. Then it’ll come up on the one upstairs. At least the Ghost is attempting to pay for it?

     Whoooo, I found a pinball machine. It’s a sweet AC/DC pinball, but it cost $2NZ to play. Boo!

     I found myself a proper job as an electrician, aka ‘Sparky’. I’ve decided that I’m not going to go into the depths of the job, but know that I’m making just a little bit under what I made in the states and in a lot of ways it’s tons or “heaps” easier. They don’t even use metal conduit it’s all PVC plastic pipes. The outlets are all super simple to install. There are 7 employees and I make 8. Super chill, super laid back. My boss’s only question during my interview was...if you even want to call it that, where my hobbies were at on my resume? Dumbfounded, I told him that I don’t usually list my hobbies and he said “well on Mondays we all gather around and talk about the adventure we did on the weekend,  so you best have something good to say on Monday.”

     Day 3, and I’m in the workshop with Jonny fixing appliances and whatever else people are having problems with. On the wall of the workshop is about 8 posters of naked girls from what looks like photography from Playboy, circa 1995. I didn’t know if I was in my uncle’s garage or at work. My day was spent fixing coffee and espresso machines, 3 vacuums, rewired a storefront’s open sign, fixed some other tools and a bakery’s industrial mixer. Here they don’t throw things away when it breaks, they take it apart and fix it. I can’t help to remember my Uncle Richard, one of my many uncles that were in WW2. Richard was the neighborhood handy man and always had a garage full of lawn mowers that he was fixing. There is something satisfying about taking something broken, taking it all apart, figuring out what is wrong with it, and then remembering how it all goes back together again. I can see myself being 60+ and being like my uncle Richard, fixing the neighborhood appliances or helping with electrical issues.

I’m pretty stoked that my schooling for construction/electrical is something that is in high demand in other countries as well as the U.S…now if I can only find a way to own a company and still be my own boss.

Switch lanes.

     The UK version of Cards Against Humanity is hard! There is so many cards that I have no clue what it’s supposed to be or who it’s supposed to be. But… I managed to beat everyone still. J

Here is a new game for ya’ll, Giant Jenga with a fucking hammer! Rules goes as follows: You must first use the hammer for the first hit or tap. Once you touch any block that is the block you have to get out, there is no tapping to see which one is loose. Best tip: Just swing hard. “it’s kinda like the same concept of pulling a table cloth off the table, without spilling all of the glassware onto the floor.” Do ya follow me? So just pick a block, hit it really hard, and hope the rest don’t all fall down!

     I have to take a moment to talk about car doors. 6 out 7 lonely car doors are left open. These sad car doors are left open and forgotten about, sometimes for hours, sometimes for days. It’s sad. These doors never know if they will ever be shut again. They might just be open forever! “Shut the damn door!” is what I can hear my parents telling everyone here. I guess a lot of cars here don’t have “dope scopes” or dome lights, because people everywhere around here just leave their car doors wide open. It kinda drives me crazy, but meh, it’s not my car, so not my worries. It’s just an odd thing to me.

     Oh, I know what would drive my dad crazy…. the potato salad here. We bought a package at “New World” (the most expensive grocery store in all of New Zealand.) The package said, “American Style Potato Salad.” Well, I opened it up and it was more like a potato salad soup…It had potential for taste, but it had a gallon of water in it. Oh man, I can’t wait til’ Teryn and I get our food blog done up for ya.

New words and phrases for your pleasure:

     Cruzie – Super Chill. “Oh dude, today was super cruzie, I just laid at the beach all day.”

     Dodgy – Sketchy. “That is a dodgy job they did on that repair.”

     Yarn- Chat. “Let’s meet up at the cafe and have a yarn.”

     “I was doing a proper boogie wiggle.”- I was getting down on the dance floor.

   

      “I am so wrecked.”- I am super tired.

     “Oh man you fucking smashed it!”-You did a great job man!

Yeastie Boys is a name of a stout from Wellington, New Zealand and is quite delicious. Most closely tastes like a Lefthand Nitro Milk Stout.

I drove for the first time last night. Okay let me back up. I got a job at LoneStar which is basically this restaurant at the edge of town. Longest bike ride ever. It’s all up hill coming home and after a long day that’s the last thing I want to do, but nonetheless I’ll do whatever I have to do to get some money rolling back into my pocket again. So Lonestar. Is basically your American streak house. Lonestar Steakhouse. Yeah I’m pretty sure they just stole the name from the original Texas restaurant chain.

Country music plays over the speaker system. There is the occasional good classic Johnny Cash, but its few and far between. The place is covered in pictures of butch Cassidy, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and a few other legends. I think my Johnny Cash picture count is around 30 right now.

So far I have had their steak fillet and Salmon dishes. I must say the steak was pretty comparable to something you’d get back in the states. The Salmon was alright, but they laid it on top of some green baby poop, so that pretty much ruined it for me.

I get to this place not really knowing what they want me to do. Quickly I am told to run the bar. Okay cool. I can do that. Or at least I can pretend. Bartending out here is pretty simple other than the coffee part of it. Which as I mentioned in the last blog, they are pretty crazy with their specific ways to prepare coffee and the different sizes of each cup for each. Okay so bartending, Pour some beers and wipe down glasses. Cool.

 Well.. yesterday I get told that I get to drive the curtesy coach which is the 11 person van they have to be able to pick people up. They pick people up from their house or wherever and bring them to lonestar and then at the end of the night the van driver takes them all back home again all for free.

Not bad of a deal, since A: the restaurant is kinda far away from the main strip and B: You do not want to get caught drinking and driving here.

 So yeah pretty good deal. So one of the managers asks me if I have my license to drive and I was like I have my states license. She says okay cool you are our driver tonight. I was like..um… okay.. I haven’t ever drove a car yet, let alone a van with 11 passengers in New Zealand ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ROAD…She said well... you’ll be alright. You’ll figure it out.

So away I went. There really aren’t a lot of stop signs here, they are more like yield signs. Which I was used to in Germany. There is also a lot of Roundabouts or traffic circles here. Those can be a bit more confusing, since you are entering on the left and exit on the left. I almost made the mistake of exiting on the right. Thankfully I didn’t. 

 My first couple of customers noticed that I had accidently put the windshield wipers on instead of the turn signals ( The turn signal is on the right of the steering wheel and the wipers is on the left) At first they were concerned, but quickly were like..oh you must be an American. I told them yup and today was my first time driving on the other side of the road. One woman said “ohhhh help help” but in a joking tone. She just kept telling me to always remember to stay to the left and I’ll be alright. Upon taking that same woman back home she asked me “ Which side of the road do you drive on? I jokingly said “ummm the middle right?” by this time she was a bit drunk and was like yeah that sounds right.

All night everyone was quite friendly and after I told them I had just moved here, they were quite excepting and helped give me directions around town to get them back home safely. After about 3 hours of that I actually got a hang of driving and I think as long as I don’t space out and just keep focused I’ll be alright with this whole driving thing. I remember in Germany I was a bit scared to drive, because there they have 100 more signs than we do in the states and everyone there drives super crazy fast., but that too I got the hang of and soon I was driving 90+ everywhere I went.

I think this job will be alright for the time being, until I either can find something different or until Teryn and I decide to take off to another part of the south island.

 We are looking at Nelson, New Zealand or Bay of Islands. But right now our main goal is securing the campervan, so we can take off and explore more.

Oh cool thing about lonestar is that some of the bartenders believe there is a ghost there. Every now and then there is an order for Brandy on the register screen. Never anything else, just brandy. And people here don’t really drink brandy. But every now and then it’s popped up on the screen and already ordered. So weird. At least the ghost is trying to pay for the drink I told them.

I’m going to wrap up this post, because I wanted to post about the driving experience and I need to organize my notes for my next big post. I don’t have good pictures to show this time, since we have been working and not really getting out but we are trying to see about going for a hike tomorrow.

Also future post I’m looking to forward to is Teryn’s post of our videos that we have been doing. We have decided to film each other with tasting the food here and describing it. It’s pretty funny. So those will come soon. Hope everyone is doing good back there. Thank you for reading!

First week in a far far away land called Wanaka, New Zealand. For those that don’t know, Wanaka is a beautiful quiet little town about an hour away from Queenstown and for those that don’t know Queenstown..well go to you google maps app and look it up. J upon arrival Teryn and I went to work on figuring out where to live, where to work and where to get food and booze, ya know the necessities of life. Teryn imidiently found an add in a local weekly news paper for a room to rent.

 She called and it ended up just being right up the street from the bar we were at. So we walked up a bit using only the map from the visitor’s center and walked up and met with the woman who owned the place. Flair ( pronounced flea) ( yeah I’m not sure how that works either) is this really cool woman maybe early 30’s complete hippie girl with a slack line in yard and just over all great energy. She is also an entrepreneur. She owns two coffee shops, one being a mobile (food truck) called “The Good Spot” so awesome! Her and her daughter Ataahua (Ahtoowah) along with another roommate or as they say ( Flatmate) Hugh an Aussie who just turned 30 the same week I did.

 They both are so welcoming and friendly Teryn and I really lucked out. Everyone couldn’t believe how fast we were able to find a place to live. I guess that can be the hardest thing to do around here. Our friend Corey who also lives here, lives with 4 other people. It’s pretty common to live with 3 to 5 other people.                                     

                        

So anyways we basically live in a garage. Well it’s a converted garage. We have a sink, mini fridge, toaster over, gas cooktop ( propane tank) couch, a couple of chairs, bed ( horrible springy bed) a dresser , little desk. Over all it’s pretty sweet. We just have to go to the main house which is just a couple steps away to use the toilet and shower. I really can’t complain too much, since it’s a place where it’s just Teryn and I and we can still be naked and not worry about roomates. Ataahua does tend to stop by whenever she wants in the morning, but she is a cute kid so it’s alright. She’s 5 and just got a kitten (you’ll see in the pics) named Kahn. Well it was named Kahn, now I think they changed it to Charlie.

So I can’t really remember what I had typed the first time that I started this part of the blog, so I am going to do what comes best. Be random with my thoughts.

Went to the liquor store and I couldn’t believe my eyes for a regular bottle of Patron they wanted $177! Which ends up being $130 for a bottle that is normally $50 or $60 back in the states. ( We later found a store that more reasonable prices) They have jack and cola already premixed bottles that are still only 5% alcohol. They only have 5% on tap at most. This one place has a 2.5% on tap. Because of the liquor laws the bars want to provide a beer to people where they won’t get in trouble if they drive after. I told the bartender that in Colorado you can get 6% to 8% on tap and I think I just about blew her mind. Everything is definitely a lot more expensive here that is for sure. For happy hour only certain beers or wines are on happy hour. Happy hour is only an hour. Not like in the states, where a happy hour can be 2 hours or so. At this rate. I’m gonna have to stop drinking…ha naw that’s not gonna happen. But I might have to switch to Wine or Ciders since that is one thing they do right.

Most bars doesn’t have seats at the bar, which I find quite odd too. Oh and for the guys it’s back to the days of pissing in troths again. Barely any individual urinals.

Charlie the kitten. Pictures of cats will go viral, Pictures of sleeping kittens will travel to the ends of the universe. I could put the most breathtaking picture of Mt. Wherever, but I bet my life savings that the kitten will get more likes and shares.

Don’t flush the toilet after every piss, you are wasting water.

I should learn to be a barista. Coffee is the way of the world. I know I can find a job, but the stress of finding one is stressful enough in the states. If I am to make this travel life work. I need to be able to get a job wherever we decide to go on this planet. Maybe I should learn to be a barista. Iced coffee to them is coffee with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. They take their coffee very seriously here and it is pretty damn good and strong. However the size is super small or small. No Large, No grande super size. But with how strong it already is, I am beginning to realize the bigger coffee in the states is really just filler with sugars and milk that you don’t really need anyway. 

So I am getting used to that.

I’m learning to either drink cider or drink wine because they atleast do those “proper” here. ( I’m also convinced that I will return home with a british accent, because of all the british people that live here) but food ah man… that is something to be dealt with. For starters I almost wasn’t able to find frozen pizza let alone a pizza place. We have tried a few pizzas now, but still nothing special. Mexican place…thought to ourselves you can’t fuck up Mexican right? Wrong… We went to a restaurant called Trout. Guess what… They don’t even have trout on the menu!?! And we are on the lake where there is tons of trout! So..yeah not sure what is going on with that.

We have yet to have Sushi here, but we are told the best sushi here is at a little place inside the mini mall ( when I say mini, I mean it literally has 4 stores and a video rental store.) problem with this is that the sushi place closes at 5pm. Ugh….. I could go on and on about the let downs of the food here, but I think Teryn and I both will do an entire blog on the food here.

 *TWO WORDS. HAM HUCK. ( Ham pieces mixed with a flavorless jello) yuck! Picture of that is on my Instagram which if you don’t know is dan.conerd come follow along kids.

1993. Always. Errrday. Allllday.

 It seems that Kiwis’ love American music, but it just so happens that it’s pretty much all the music from 1993. I am going to start documenting the music that plays here more, so you’ll know what I’m talking about.

Job search. Teryn of course landed an amazing new wine bar/artsy kind of place job and as for me… well  I am currently still working on it. I do have trial day at this steakhouse called lonestar. I think it’s basically a restaurant trying to be an American steak house, but we haven’t actually ate their yet because it’s out at the edge of town. The brits that we hang out with say it’s the worse place to work for, but at this point I am looking for anything that can provide a paycheck, before I dig myself in any more of deeper hole that I already am. For those that don’t know Teryn and I are by no means rich and only way we made this move possible is by a leap of faith and some credit cards. I still have a flat screen tv and soundsystem for sale back in Denver if there is anyone that wants to make me an offer.

Anyways wish me luck on getting a job.

I was lucky enough to score a free mountain bike, I just had to change out the front tube. The breaks need work, but for now I think I can make it work. It’s already so weird riding my bike on the other side of the road. Teryn also scored a bike today for $30 ( or for those keeping track that is around $24 in American dollars)

Today Teryn and I had a very beautiful walk to the local Wanaka Wine Vineyard, where we got to do a wine tasting and then we bought a bottle and soaked in the sun ( I of course forgot sunscreen and am now burnt) but nonetheless we soaked in the sun and sat in awe of the amazing views. Pictures below.

 Today was a beautiful day, one of the many I am positive that we will have on this adventure of ours. It’s getting late now and I’m sorry that it took me a bit longer to write this one, but I am going to try my hardest to write more and write it down right away from the time something happens, so I don’t forget.

 I love you all and may your week be proper. Oh this guy ( who might have a job for me) says he would be keen to go have a yarn with me. What the hell do you suppose that means?